GCHQ operates secret Middle East spy hub in Oman – report

The location of secret British spy bases in Oman, tapping undersea cables in the Middle East, has up until now remained unpublished because of pressure from the government, according to a new article that reveals those details.

British intelligence agency Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ) has three “above-top-secret” spy
bases located in Oman, “where it taps in to various undersea
cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the
Persian/Arabian Gulf,” Duncan Campbell reported for the Register, citing leaks by NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden. The bases, codenamed
“CIRCUIT” reportedly focus on Iraqi and Yemeni
communications.

GCHQ spends tens of million pounds annually to employ two telecom
companies, BT (codename “REMEDY”) and Vodafone Cable
(codename “GERONTIC”), to “run secret teams which
install hidden connections which copy customers' data and
messages to the spooks’ processing centres” and “install
optical fibre taps or ‘probes’ into equipment belonging to other
companies without their knowledge or consent.” GCHQ calls in
engineers from BT whenever it wants to tap into a new
international fiber optic cable, Campbell wrote.

Currently GCHQ is believed to have access to more than 18
submarine cables coming into the GCHQ, including from
transatlantic submarine cable Hibernia Atlantic, as well as three
European connections.

But the actual locations of their “access points” on the
underwater, international cables are considered “Strap
3,” or three levels above Top Secret classification, while
the names of the telecom companies are labeled one level lower,
or “Strap 2.”

According to Campbell, the British government threatened to move
against the Guardian newspaper, one of the main publishers of
Snowden leaks, after it posted “Strap 1” information on
Project
Tempora, which allows the UK spy agency to intercept and
store for 30 days huge volumes of data, like emails, social
network posts, phone calls and much more, culled from
international fiber-optic cables.

“The Guardian was forced to destroy hard drives of leaked
information to prevent political embarrassment over extensive
commercial arrangements with these and other telecommunications
companies who have secretly agreed to tap their own and their
customers’ or partners’ overseas cables for the intelligence
agency GCHQ,” Campbell wrote in the article.
“Intelligence chiefs also wished to conceal the identities of
countries helping GCHQ and its US partner the NSA by sharing
information or providing facilities.”

Since the Guardian did not publish the information, the British
government dropped its threat of injunctions against the paper,
Campbell told Wired.co.uk.

Last August, Campbell revealed in the Independent the UK operated
a secret station in the Middle East that tapped into
international fiber-optic cables, but that newspaper would not
reveal the exact location. He said the information came from
Snowden leaks, but Snowden denied any contact with the
investigative reporter.

“I have never spoken with, worked with, or provided any
journalistic materials to the Independent. The journalists I have
worked with have, at my request, been judicious and careful in
ensuring that the only things disclosed are what the public
should know but that does not place any person in danger,”
Snowden wrote in a statement published in the
Guardian in August.

“It appears that the UK government is now seeking to create
an appearance that the Guardian and Washington Post's disclosures
are harmful, and they are doing so by intentionally leaking
harmful information to The Independent and attributing it to
others,” he continued. “The UK government should explain
the reasoning behind this decision to disclose information that,
were it released by a private citizen, they would argue is a
criminal act."

In the Register article, Campbell again cites the Snowden leaks.
He refused to tell
Business Insider how he got his information. “Journalists
in the UK — just as in the US — do not reveal their sources, or
respond to questions as to confidential sources. We protect them.
That is our obligation and our duty," Campbell wrote in an
email.

When
Wired.co.uk asked him if he had copies of the documents he
quotes, he responded, "I won't answer that question -- given
the conduct of the authorities." But he went on to say,
"I was able to look at some of the material provided in
Britain to the Guardian by Edward Snowden last year."

He also pointed to the naming of one of the Omani locations
involved in Circuit on Zone-Interdite, a website that finds
covert bases around the world using photos from the public arena,
as corroborating evidence.
Campbell told Wired.co.uk there was no reason to keep the exact
locations hidden from the public. "This is not something that
affects national security," he said. "The information
has been reported before, and the site as you can see is
perfectly visible and it's one of many things the UK government
and GCHQ sought to suppress from entering the debate."